I Saw Willie Mays at a Scottsdale Home Depot

I know. I said no videos and I was talking about how busy I am. But this is Joe Henry. Not just Joe Henry but Joe Henry 1. talking about the single best song released in 2007 and 2. sitting alone at a piano playing the single best song released last year.

How good is this song? It still floors me whenever I hear it. Go buy Civilians for this song and stay for the brilliance of the rest of it. It's so good that upon seeing this video I immediately put Civilians on. This song makes me proud and sad at the same time. It's so good that I cannot even find the words to describe it. In fact, it should be the song you hear in your head when you think about life.

Truly, this is my song. I think I've felt this way nearly every day for ten years. Lyrics follow the video.

How good is this song? It's so good that Joe Henry is willing to give you the song for free knowing that it's impossible for you to not want the album after hearing "Our Song." Go ahead download it and listen. It's so simple and brilliant that it makes you say, "Joe Henry's a fucking genius" and you actually mean it.

It's so good because of the way Joe sings it, the way the lines are broken up, the way the end of each line seems to sigh into the next.

Put even more simply, this is the best politically-tinged song you never realized had anything to do with politics. Because it's not about politics, per se, it's about how we feel. How we all feel.



I saw Willie Mays at a Scottsdale Home Depot
Looking at garage door springs
At the far end of the 14th row
His wife stood there beside him
She was quiet and they both were proud
I gave them room but was close enough
That I heard him when he said out loud

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
It stared badly and it's ending wrong
This was my country
This frightful and this angry land
But it's my right if the worst of it might still
Somehow make me
A better man

The sun is unforgiving
And there's nobody would choose this town
But we've squandered so much of our good will that there's
Nowhere else will have us now
We push in line at the picture show
For cool air and a chance to see
A vision of ourselves portrayed as
Younger and braver and humble and free


This was our country
This was our song
Somewhere in the middle there
It stared badly and it's ending wrong
This was our country
This frightful and this angry land
But it's my right if the worst of it might still
Somehow make me
A better man

I've started something I can finish and
I barely leave the house its true
I keep a wrap on my sores and joints but I
Guess I've had my blessings too
I've got my mother's pretty feet and the
Factory keeps my house in shape
My children they’ve both been paroled and
We get by on the peace we've made
I feel safe so far from heaven
From towers and their ocean views
From here I see the future coming across
What soon will be beaches too

But that was him, I'm almost sure
The greatest centerfielder of all time
Stooped by the burden of endless dreams
His and yours and mine

He hooked each spring beneath his foot
He leaned over then he stood upright
Testing each against his weight
For one that had some play and some fight

He's just like us I want to tell him
And our needs are small enough
Something to slow a heavy door
Something to help us raise one up

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
It stared badly and it's ending wrong
This was God's Country
This frightful and this angry land
But if it's his will the worst of it might still
Somehow make me
A better man
If it's his will the worst of it might still
Somehow make me
A better man